On the capacity of network coding for random networks

We study the maximum flow possible between a single-source and multiple terminals in a weighted random graph (modeling a wired network) and a weighted random geometric graph (modeling an ad-hoc wireless network) using network coding. For the weighted random graph model, we show that the network coding capacity concentrates around the expected number of nearest neighbors of the source and the terminals. Specifically, for a network with a single source, l terminals, and n relay nodes such that the link capacities between any two nodes is independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) /spl sim/X, the maximum flow between the source and the terminals is approximately nE[X] with high probability. For the weighted random geometric graph model where two nodes are connected if they are within a certain distance of each other we show that with high probability the network coding capacity is greater than or equal to the expected number of nearest neighbors of the node with the least coverage area.